Ancient Philosophy: Plato & His Predecessors

Ancient Philosophy: Plato & His Predecessors

Ancient Philosophy: Plato & His Predecessors

University of Pennsylvania

About this course: What is philosophy? How does it differ from science, religion, and other modes of human discourse? This course traces the origins of philosophy in the Western tradition in the thinkers of Ancient Greece. We begin with the Presocratic natural philosophers who were active in Ionia in the 6th century BCE and are also credited with being the first scientists. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximines made bold proposals about the ultimate constituents of reality, while Heraclitus insisted that there is an underlying order to the changing world. Parmenides of Elea formulated a powerful objection to all these proposals, while later Greek theorists (such as Anaxagoras and the atomist Democritus) attempted to answer that objection. In fifth-century Athens, Socrates insisted on the importance of the fundamental ethical question—“How shall I live?”—and his pupil, Plato, and Plato’s pupil, Aristotle, developed elaborate philosophical systems to explain the nature of reality, knowledge, and human happiness. After the death of Aristotle, in the Hellenistic period, Epicureans and Stoics developed and transformed that earlier tradition. We will study the major doctrines of all these thinkers. Part I will cover Plato and his predecessors. Part II will cover Aristotle and his successors.

Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Xenophanes seek the material principle of the cosmos, and arrive at a radical new conception of the gods. Heraclitus distills the essence of their “naturalism” in his riddling slogans.

8 videos, 2 readings

Video: Introduction to Ancient Philosophy

Reading: Milesians Readings

Video: How We Study the Pre-Socratics

Video: Fragments and Sources

Video: Philosophers or scientists?

Video: The Material Principle

Video: God in Nature?

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Questions: Milesians

Reading: Heraclitus Readings

Video: Heraclitus on the LOGOS

Video: Heraclitus on Change

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Questions: Heraclitus

Graded: Milesians

Graded: Heraclitus

WEEK 2

Parmenides to Plato

Parmenides poses a fundamental philosophical challenge to all naturalistic inquiry when he denies the intelligibility of change. Later naturalists (Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus) respond to his challenge. Plato’s portrait of Socrates raises questions about the nature of philosophy, its role in public life, and the relation between morality and religion.

What is virtue, and how can it be taught? What is teaching anyway, and how could we ever acquire knowledge? Socrates gives a geometry lesson purporting to show that learning is recollection. Why should we act justly? What’s in it for us? An elaborate analogy between a city and a human soul seeks to convince us that crime never pays, even if the criminal can escape detection.

10 videos, 4 readings

Reading: Plato's Meno

Video: Virtue in the Meno

Video: Teachers of Virtue?

Video: Theory of Recollection

Video: Was Socrates Teaching?

Video: Meno's Paradox

Video: Knowledge vs. True Belief

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Question: Plato's Meno

Reading: Republic Book 1

Reading: Republic Book 2

Reading: Republic Book 4

Video: Is Justice a Virtue?

Video: The Just City

Video: The Just Soul

Video: Rational Injustice?

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Questions: Plato's Republic 1-4

Graded: Plato's Meno

Graded: Plato's Republic

WEEK 4

Plato on Reality & Goodness

The ultimate realities are intelligible Forms, while the world of our experience is only an image of that reality. Goodness is a fundamental feature of the world. Plato’s cosmology: the creation of the universe (complete with a world soul) and the principles of mathematical perfection that structure it at every level.

6 videos, 4 readings

Reading: Republic Book 5

Reading: Republic Books 6-7

Video: Plato's Theory of Forms

Video: The Real and the Good

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Question: Plato's Republic 5-7

Reading: Plato's Timaeus

Video: The Creation of the World

Video: The World Soul

Video: Plato's Mathematical Physics

Video: Conclusion to Part 1

Discussion Prompt: Discussion Question: Timaeus

Reading: Credits

Graded: Republic Books 5-7

Graded: Plato's Timaeus

Graded: Plato & His Predecessors Final Project

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The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) is a private university, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A member of the Ivy League, Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and considers itself to be the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.7 out of 5 of 528 ratings

This course was written wonderfully, the lectures are clear & detailed - the curriculum is cohesive, sensible, and useful. Really great course & teacher.

Very interesting , well designed and presented, introductory course

very helpfull and atractive course, lots of information and access to material to help understand it.

FS

Good, interesting introduction to the cosmology and ethics of Plato and presocratic thinkers. The reading material is good and the lectures are pleasant and interesting!